Demise of the "Big Six?"

I lived in or around Watertown, Wisconsin for much of my life. I know exactly where Maranatha is located. My cousin owns the tractor dealership just down the road before the new Farm and Fleet store. I also note that very underwhelming activity of Baptists in that area... One would think that if there was a shred of evangelistic heart in Maranatha or her students that there would be a plethora of Baptist churches in the region surrounding the school, but there is not, and the churches that are there are, well, weird -- even to natives of the state. Not trying to knock Maranatha, per se. I'm sure it is a fine school. Just wondering why there is not more Baptist influence around a place like that.

I was literally shocked when I moved farther south (Kentucky) and saw Baptist churches on virtually every corner, and Kentucky is hardly churched in the Baptist tradition compared to points further south and east. When I lived in Wisconsin, I never did get all the Home Mission Board (SBC) emphasis on planting new churches in apartment buildings and trailer parks -- that is, until I arrived in the south and discovered what the "Bible Belt" really meant.

 

I think there's a couple of reasons why that happens:

(1) There are still people in the SBC who continue to bash people whom they politically defeated years before. In the midst of that, there is some revisionism going on and it keeps the old wounds fresh. Both major sides are guilty.

(2) Many of us who don't actually consider ourselves SBC anymore still have very strong connections to the SBC. For me Southwestern Seminary is less than two miles away and I am tightly integrated with people who are part of the Southwestern community. Furthermore, Southwestern tends to assert itself in ways that don't often make the papers, including consistent bashing of my church family (unfounded allegations that our church "doesn't believe the Bible" from trustees, administration and the seminary president) and attempts at control of the local Tarrant Baptist Association, and other various issues.

(3) What the SBC and Southwestern does affects public opinion of our congregation, so we have to constantly clarify our similarities and differences with the public. Therefore, we tend to talk about the SBC more than we would like.

And FYI, I am not a CBFer.